Liberty's Blog

Abuse at the Texas City Dike

The police are having a field day harrassing the good people and citizens looking for a place to go fishing. Texas City Police seem to enjoy their reputation of being the bullies of Galveston County. Seems as though when they aren't bullying people trying to salvage their hurricane damaged properys with their blockades or arresting people for enjoying a tournement of Texas Hold 'em. Texas city police believe that serving and protecting is bullying the citizens into submission. 81 John Ringer rode his bicycle up the 5 mile dike and back.

The 81-year-old Texas City resident said he rode his bicycle to the end of the dike Saturday. By the time he returned to the dike entrance, four police officers were waiting, he said.

Ringer said he knew it was against the rules to be on the dike, but with the pier closed, hundreds of cars of anglers who would normally be on the dike are now packed in along Skyline drive on the hurricane levee.

“I didn’t know I could cause so much trouble,” Ringer said. “But it wasn’t as dangerous riding my bike on the dike as it would have been on the levee.”

Ringer said three men who were crabbing in an area where the levee connects to the base of the dike also were ticketed.

Now why are they giving the tickets? It seemed safe safe enough for an 81 year old man to ride his bicycle. Maybe its the four hundred of tickets at $260 a piece is significant money. This type of money is worthy of trickery. Evangelos Koutougeras, got a ticket but he wasn't even on the dike.
“I took my kayak from the levee and went out to Mosquito Island and this cop he calls me over to the dike with his bullhorn,” Koutougeras said. “I had to walk in the water to meet the cop. He tells me ‘you are trespassing,’ I told him I wasn’t on the dike until he called me over.”

Koutougeras, 54, said he has been fishing in the area since 1992 and that while he doesn’t think the dike should be closed, insisted he never was on the dike when he launched his kayak for a day of fishing on Nov. 4.
“I took my kayak from the levee and went out to Mosquito Island and this cop he calls me over to the dike with his bullhorn,” Koutougeras said. “I had to walk in the water to meet the cop. He tells me ‘you are trespassing,’ I told him I wasn’t on the dike until he called me over.”

Koutougeras, 54, said he has been fishing in the area since 1992 and that while he doesn’t think the dike should be closed, insisted he never was on the dike when he launched his kayak for a day of fishing on Nov. 4.

Stanton said citations are supposed to be issued only to people who are on the dike and not in the water, on the levee or on sandbars such as Mosquito Island.

Koutougeras said he was so angry he threw all the fish he’d caught back in the water. He said would fight the ticket.



Stanton said citations are supposed to be issued only to people who are on the dike and not in the water, on the levee or on sandbars such as Mosquito Island.

Koutougeras said he was so angry he threw all the fish he’d caught back in the water. He said would fight the ticket.

“I took my kayak from the levee and went out to Mosquito Island and this cop he calls me over to the dike with his bullhorn,” Koutougeras said. “I had to walk in the water to meet the cop. He tells me ‘you are trespassing,’ I told him I wasn’t on the dike until he called me over.”

Koutougeras, 54, said he has been fishing in the area since 1992 and that while he doesn’t think the dike should be closed, insisted he never was on the dike when he launched his kayak for a day of fishing on Nov. 4.

Stanton said citations are supposed to be issued only to people who are on the dike and not in the water, on the levee or on sandbars such as Mosquito Island.

Koutougeras said he was so angry he threw all the fish he’d caught back in the water. He said would fight the ticket.

Yeah the cop called him to the dike on a bullhorn. This officer was surely thinking about "protecting and serving" .

Police all over deserve respect, but one really has to wonder about the bullies that call themselves police officers in Texas City. Who are they protecting and who are they realling serving when they harrass citizens? Maybe the people in Texas City would be better protected and enjoy more freedom with fewer police? Tactics lik this suggust the police are just looking ang inventing crime just to justify their existance.

posted by Liberty @ 5:58 PM